Help needed to monetize the clicks..

Hi,

I have few good shots of the wild, though taken from a Point and shoot. Monetizing them is an attempt to buy a good zoom lens for my DSLR(recently bought which left me nearly bankrupt). I know that they cannot fetch the sum required for the zoom lens but whatever I get from them will only help.

Being a photographer by passion rather than a professional, I would hardly be able to take up assignments in photography. Hence would like to know how can I monetize my clicks as I take them. Any leads will do a a world of good to me.

Thanks
Krishnadas N Mallya

Frankly speaking this is a tough question. So no one has ventured to answer this.

In the days when we were shooting in slides, the number of photographers were less. Stock agencies were few and they were rigid in checking the quality of submissions and only accepting slides that used to meet their criteria. In case, a client wanted a particular image, and the stock agency used to submit a bunch of images for approval of the client and somehow your image was one of those that the client liked, then it used to get licensed. The stock agency normally keeps 50% and give the rest 50% to you.

With the advent of digital, the number of people clicking images have increased. Sharing it becomes easier. No need to duplicate your slides etc etc. So there is more competition to license your images. Professionals need to make money to make a living. Amateurs don't need to. Most of the people are happy to see their image appear in a newspaper, magazine, coffee table books etc so they are happy to give it for free. When you give it for free, it is natural that they won't like to pay to other professionals. This trend has continued and has become worse. So making money from stock has become difficult.

There are micro stock agencies, who give you a dollar or so for each image licensed. A dollar means about 50 rupees. Less than the cost of a coffee that you drink in a cafe coffee day or a Barista or some other place. So this is not going to give any significant revenue.

The best is if you can get your images accepted for calendars etc. You can make some money. Else, the amount of fuel you will spend in driving down to your nearest bank will be more than the amount written in the cheque (assuming you too drive a fuel guzzling SUV like me).

So it is a hard life if the primary source of revenue is from wildlife photography. That is the reason why you see there is a mad rush by photographers to organise tours, and workshops etc. That is why you find the so called reputed wildlife photographers trying to do cloning without mentioning it and getting caught.

I do get requests for images. I try to see if any member has an image matching the requirement. However, since many members here clone their images I can't put my reputation in the line of fire by referring them. That is the only reason for me not to offer a facility to members to have dedicated image galleries.

Good luck for your monetizing attempts.

Sabyasachi

:laugh:Crisp,Nice and makes a lot of sense.A must read for all aspiring to make a Living out of Wildlife photography.
TFS
Roopak

A Nice frank reply by Sabyasachi sir, I read and DISHEARTEN a lot. I am thinking of buying a good lens but now it seems better to buried the idea.

Bhai Suranjan,
There is no reason for your being upset.In our journey through life,an optimist finds opportunity in every difficulty.Time will come when you will have a better equipment.I have seen some memers using basic models and tele zoom,posting imaginative photos.
Kind regards,
SaktiWild

Thanks Dada for such an inspiring comment. Yes, I am an optimist and I wanted to take this professionally, but nowadays money speaks over everything.

I have seen so many nice wildlife images here. Does anyone on these forums make money off their lovely photos? I understand the personal joy of shooting these, but to get better and better images, the cost of equipment becomes prohibitive. Add to that the cost of travelling and exploring an area to get the best possible images.

Everytime I look at lens prices, I wonder how I will justify these to myself and my wife :)

Yes Suranjan dont be disheartened and upset as said by Panigrahi sahab. I agree with Sabayaschi thoughts, he has given the right picture of stock, microstock and calender photography.

Somehow I think microstock has still some potential for amateur and hobbyist even though it pays very less as mentioned 1$ (Rs 50) for a single image. In fact the share is even less 25-50% of a $. But this is with the minimum licensing policy and at higher end your shares goes up to $28 and even more. Also when you are talking about microstock you mean thousands of images in portfolio and thousands of download in a month. Achieving this is a slow and steady process requires patient and great passion.

A search on net will give you the topmost microstock agencies. Entry in some of them are little difficult but they are good payers. I do microstock photography and I am happy with whatever I get from my photographs. The amount is not very big but I can atleast purchase a mid range lens/camera in a year. This is how it goes for me.

Thanks Dr Singh, for the detailed reply.

How about magazines? Do any of you sell images to magazines? I know they pay very very less, but they are an option.

As far as microstock photography goes, Getty has signed a deal with google to make available images from istockphoto, flikr etc to google drive, so that the several hundred million users of google can search your images and use it for their projects. The contributors of istockphoto, flikr etc will get a one time fee of 12 dollars for all of their images. This is even less than the stringers who can be found in near the govt. offices in Delhi who go with the motto: flash on, f5.6, 1/60 click.

There are only a few magazines in India who pay for use of photographs and they pay next to nothing. It is more of pain to go and deposit a 500/1000 rupee cheque. Of course those magazines have a view that they are good because other magazines and newspapers blatantly copy images from photosharing sites and publish it. The situation is better in US.

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one time fee of 12 dollars for all of their images

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Very sad to know about this. I would suggest to start with shutterstock put some 500 images or more in your portfolio and see the result. If it is fine then continue or else the copyright is always with you and you can withdraw any time.

Sad. Advertising photography pays sooooooooooo much....